Chesapeake Bay

Thanksgiving week presents a bargain opportunity that no self-respecting new england yankee can pass up: five days of vacation for the price of three. So we decided to combine thanksgiving travel with a bit of vacation and spend a couple of days on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. In spite of growing up in Maryland, he hadn't been there in thirty years. I'd never been there. So we took the Prius for a road trip. The destination: St. Michaels, Maryland. We stayed at the Five Gables Inn and Spa, a delightful B&B with that most wonderful of amenties: a steam room. It was just the cure for the cold that hit me right before vacation.

Chesapeake Bay was calm and inviting, and the weather was suprisingly warm while we were there. The bay is the largest estuary in the world, and you can easily imagine what it was like there 50 or 100 years ago--a waterman's life dominated by fishing, oystering, crabbing, and boats of all shapes and sizes. At the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum we learned about log canoes, skipjacks, bugeyes, Baltimore clippers, and other water craft peculiar to the bay. Much of the land is still devoted to agriculture. We saw cornfields framed by views of the bay, and by the side of one quiet road we met this cute little character dozing under a tree.

I brought knitting of course; my second Mountain Colors handspun targhee watch cap. The pattern is here. I started it on Saturday night and have already made it to the crown shaping on the first side. As I've always suspected, monogamous knitting is the fastest way to have new things to wear but it's hard to stick to. Even while knitting the hat I'm thinking about switching to the socks!